Bihemispheric processing of redundant bilateral lexical information.
Cerebral asymmetries in lexical ambiguity resolution were studied. In 2 experiments, targets related to the dominant and subordinate meanings of ambiguous word primes were presented for lexical decision after a 750-ms stimulus onset asynchrony. Experiment 1 compared presentation of target words to the left visual field/right-hemisphere (LVF/RH), to the right visual field/left-hemisphere (RVF/LH), or after redundant bilateral visual field (BVF) presentation. Experiment 2 examined unilateral priming in the absence of a BVF condition. On unilateral trials, priming was observed for dominant meanings in both the LVF/RH and RVF/LH, whereas subordinate priming was obtained only in the RVF/LH. These results suggest a possible role of hemispheric interaction in the availability of ambiguous word meanings. BVF performance evidenced a bilateral redundancy gain and priming that resembled that obtained on RVF/LH trials. Additional BVF analyses were not consistent with a strict race model interpretation and appear to implicate hemispheric cooperation in the bihemisperic processing of lexical information.
Hasbrooke
R E
RE
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside 92521, USA.
Chiarello
C
C
D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*